Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to customer relationship management (CRM) data processing and more particularly to environmentally influenced operation of CRM data processing.
Description of the Related Art
CRM refers to the interaction that a business entity enjoys with its customers, whether the business entity provides sales or services to the customer. CRM is often thought of as a business strategy that enables business managers to understand the customer, to retain customers through better customer experience, to attract new customers, increase profitability and to decrease customer management costs. In real terms, however, CRM systems are used specifically to manage business contacts, clients, contract wins and sales leads. As such, CRM solutions provide the end user with the customer business data necessary to provide services or products desired by the customers, to provide better customer service, to cross-sell and to up-sell more effectively, to close deals, retain current customers and understand the identity of the customer.
The advent of the Internet has changed the changed the way in which end users approach CRM strategies because advances in technology have also changed consumer buying behavior and especially the way in which businesses communicate with customers and collect data about those customers. More than the past, self-service channels such as the World Wide Web (“Web”) and more recently, the mobile computing world, have become the norm rather than the exception leading to easier ways in which to manage customer information electronically. Most importantly, the mobility of business agents and the widespread usage of mobile computing devices, both have resulted in the required adaptation of CRM data processing systems to mobile computing.
Location based computing has emerged as an essential component of mobile computing finding wide application not only in traditional personal computing, but also amongst various pervasive devices including tablet computers, smartphones and personal digital assistants. Location based computing generally refers to a general class of computer program-level services used to include specific controls for location and time data as control features in computer programs. As such location based computing has proven an important aspect of a number of types of applications—particularly in the social networking and entertainment spaces.
Location based computing provides services to identify a location of a person or object or the whereabouts of a friend or employee. Location based computing also provides services for parcel tracking and vehicle tracking. Location based computing yet further supports mobile commerce when taking the form of coupons or advertising directed at customers based upon the contemporaneous location of the consumer. Finally, location based computing provides personalized weather services and even location-based games. In the context of CRM, location based services support both mobile resource management and field force management. Field force management in CRM refers to the scheduling, dispatching and optimization of teams of technicians in the field so as to minimize costs while meeting customer demands. Comparably, mobile resource management refers to the scheduling, dispatching, routing, re-routing and optimization of assets such as vehicles into the field so as to minimize costs while meeting customer demands.